The Economics of Copyright in the Digital Age

Christian Peukert and Margaritha Windisch

No 10687, CESifo Working Paper Series from CESifo

Abstract: Intellectual property rights are fundamental to how economies organize innovation and steer the diffusion of knowledge. Copyright law, in particular, has developed constantly to keep up with emerging technologies and the interests of creators, consumers, and intermediaries of the different creative industries. We provide a synthesis of the literature on the law and economics of copyright in the digital age, with a particular focus on the available empirical evidence. First, we discuss the legal foundations of the copyright system and developments of length and scope throughout the era of digitization. Second, we review the literature on technological change with its opportunities and challenges for the stakeholders involved. We give special attention to empirical evidence on online copyright enforcement, changes in the supply of works due to digital technology, and the importance of creative re-use and new licensing and business models. We then set out avenues for further research identifying critical gaps in the literature regarding the scope of empirical copyright research, the effects of technology that enables algorithmic licensing, and copyright issues related to software, data and artificial intelligence.

Keywords: copyright; digitization; technology; enforcement; licensing; business models; evidence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: K11 L82 L86 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ain, nep-cul, nep-ind, nep-ino, nep-ipr, nep-law, nep-pay and nep-tid
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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